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Author Topic: Definition of EXOTIC  (Read 1147 times)

Uzu Bash

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Definition of EXOTIC
« on: November 21, 2010, 10:37:41 am »

Chimps and cheetahs may seem exotic to us, but we don't live in a nation 80% covered in a biome they commonly inhabit. Instead of hardcoding, perhaps it should be a function of population and coverage within the embarking nation's territory. If you have lived in a jungle country all your life, horses and goats may be exotic to you, but tigers not as much.
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Rowanas

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2010, 11:11:53 am »

Sure, but finding out which animals are exotic is going to irritate the hell out of you if you have to do it every single time.
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Chthonic

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2010, 11:19:28 am »

Makes sense.  Get rid of [EXOTIC] as a tag, and any animal found outside of its biome or that the encountering culture doesn't have as part of the animal repertoire of its native civ is treated as exotic.
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Rowanas

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2010, 11:25:59 am »

Ah. But then only animals defined as domestic will be non-exotic, meaning that you'll have to wait forever for a dungeon master to appear (or mod a noble). Also, those domestic animals will ALWAYS be trainable, no chance of horses being classed as exotic, as you hinted at.
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I agree with Urist. Steampunk is like Darth Vader winning Holland's Next Top Model. It would be awesome but not something I'd like in this game.
Unfortunately dying involves the amputation of the entire body from the dwarf.

TheyTarget

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2010, 02:52:53 pm »

I think exotic should stay, cause it's not really, foreign, its more like, not commonly tamed. And don't the elves have a tag...    [USE_ANY_PET_RACE]
Which makes them take all animals native to the area they inhabit. I know, I just added that tag to my dwarfs, and I got a whole heap of pets at embark, that were native to my dwarven nation. Nothing like polar bears in the desert.

Maybe, three tiers.
Domestic, dogs, cats, etc. Everyone has and can get them
Them something like uncommon(I'm sure someone can think up a better name then that), which you would only have access to if they are within your civilizations borders (camels, snakes, so on)
and Exotic, which would not refer to rarity, but just the ability to be commonly tamed, dragons, giant jaguars, so on.

Even if your civilization is filled with dragons, theres no way they are gonna not be an exotic pet.
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AngleWyrm

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2010, 08:28:15 pm »

I'm currently playing on a region with a mountainous biome and two swamp biomes. The creatures that appear in my game are all from the mountainous biome. Do they count as exotic when they step on the swamp biome tiles?
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Matz05

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2010, 08:31:34 pm »

I think it's per-civ, not per-region. They are exotic if your civ has no mountain biomes, or if they are something fanciful/OP, but not if they are a common domestic animal.
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Max White

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2010, 01:47:50 am »

I think exotic should stay, cause it's not really, foreign, its more like, not commonly tamed. And don't the elves have a tag...    [USE_ANY_PET_RACE]
Which makes them take all animals native to the area they inhabit. I know, I just added that tag to my dwarfs, and I got a whole heap of pets at embark, that were native to my dwarven nation. Nothing like polar bears in the desert.

Maybe, three tiers.
Domestic, dogs, cats, etc. Everyone has and can get them
Them something like uncommon(I'm sure someone can think up a better name then that), which you would only have access to if they are within your civilizations borders (camels, snakes, so on)
and Exotic, which would not refer to rarity, but just the ability to be commonly tamed, dragons, giant jaguars, so on.

Even if your civilization is filled with dragons, theres no way they are gonna not be an exotic pet.

Do you mean to imply that that [MUNDANE] tag could be useful?

Roflcopter5000

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2010, 06:38:49 am »

What makes this idea better than the idea of requiring resources and/or animal training skill instead of a dungeon master? I assume the focus of you suggestion is to eliminate the arbitrary need for a position that is only filled once you reach a certain pop/wealth level.
Basically, I think certain types of animals are just going to require specialized training techniques, period. Training social mammals (dogs, elephants, horses, cows, etc.) requires essentially one skill-set. Training mammals that are dramatically more intelligent, or have dramatically different sorts of intelligence, is going to require a different skill-set. In human history, the number of animal species that had been successfully domesticated (repeatably and on a large scale) was pitifully small for a very long time. Because it doesn't just take more time and energy to train other sorts of animals, it takes an entirely different way of thinking. Training birds, marine mammals, and primates took completely different methods than training dogs or cows. Training something other than an intelligent social mammal bred for domestication is not just harder to do, it's a completely different process. And primates, though they are intelligent social mammals, are willful and obnoxious creatures, and definitely take a specialized skill set to handle and train properly.
As much as I dislike the arbitrary nature of the dungeon master, the exotic tag is well thought out. Requiring materials to train certain exotic animals that are easier to obtain in the biomes in which you find these animals would make dramatically more sense, in my opinion.
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G-Flex

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2010, 07:01:34 am »

Animals are still domesticable to varying degrees, especially considering animals which have flat-out evolved into a domesticated form, such as... well, common domestic animals (take your pick, really). Dogs are more easily domesticated than wolves, which are more easily domesticated than sharks.
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Silverionmox

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Re: Definition of EXOTIC
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2010, 01:32:33 pm »

Zebra's, for example, are notoriously hard to domesticate (nasty fuckers, they are). That's why there was no African empire, conquering lands with its zebra cavalry. It's perfectly possible to pick randomly which species are domesticatable for each game. Good for variety and unique challenges each game.
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